The ESRB strikes again, Dead Island logo censored

When Dead Island hits North American shelves later this year the box-art won’t be sporting that awesome zombie hanging from a palm tree. Instead, we’ll just be getting a zombie generically posing next to said palm tree on the cover art. Good news, though, because the in-game logo will remain the same with hanging zombie and all. Europe will fortunately be receiving an uncensored logo as it was meant to be displayed by developer Deep Silver.

Below you can view the new censored logo we’ll be getting on our retail copies. This once again marks the ESRB coming in and making the most absurd changes to a developer’s original artistic expression. All we ask for is that the game’s actual subject matter remain unaltered, but even that may be affected knowing the ratings board…

This article was posted at Destructoid.com and they said the following:

The issue probably stems from the fact that the original logo is not implicitly a zombie. It could look like a suicide — or worse — a lynching. I guess we’ll find out when European kids start hanging themselves from street lights of burning crosses in people’s yards … because game logos can make that happen.

and i say this:

I prefer the new censored logo

Patrick

I’m usually angered by censorship, but considering this will be on shelves and the nature of the silhouette, it makes sense. When I iconically think of “Zombies,” I don’t think of hanging them. That’s more associated with suicide. On a shelf, next to the Pokemon games where kids can see it, it could be too disturbing.

Jason

Well I dont really believe that it was a Zombie that it was hanged in the original.
Probably a “survivor” that gave up on life after visiting the DEAD ISLAND or something like that 😛

Still, if they leave the game as the creators imagined it in the first place I dont care about such a small change.

The Night of the Living Dead had some pretty steep racial tension in it. For some reason I want to think that at the end of it, there was a zombie hanging from a tree. I could be mistaken though, but I know that they burned a whole bunch of them in a big pile.

It does reek of the South’s lynching days though, and it’s probably for the better that they changed it. It doesn’t quite have the same shock effect as the old logo though. I get the feeling that this game is going to have a lot of controversy :\